Gareth A Davies has been a sports journalist for The Daily Telegraph since 1993. He is Boxing and MMA Correspondent. Has been intrigued by fight and combat sports from a young age. Personal sporting passions are rugby, cricket, and martial arts. Also covers the Paralympic Games. Hates getting his hair cut. Follow on Twitter @GarethADaviesDT

UFC – THE BIG INTERVIEW: Urijah Faber with Gareth A Davies

As Urijah Faber prepares himself for life under the spotlight in The Ultimate Fighter Live, against arch-rival coach and UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz, he reveals all to The Telegraph.

Toplines:

Faber believes the featherweight division “could become the crown jewel of the UFC”

Feels “lucky to have an enemy” in Dominick Cruz

“Live fights every Friday night is like my dream come true. If you mapped out my life as I’d want it, there would be fights every night, and I’d be ringside.”

"Hate is a strong word. But If I could fight Cruz every day, I would. Maybe I’ll be able to convince him to get in the ring with me at some point during filming for TUF, during practice or a training session."

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The coming two months will be all-consuming for Urijah Faber under the spotlight of the Ultimate Fighter Live, beginning this Friday. Then he will meet foe Cruz in the Octagon this summer.

Faber kicks off the new format of The Ultimate Fighter on Friday night and imparts to The Telegraph that it is genuinely exciting. “Can you believe it? Live events, every Friday night. Of course I can’t wait for this – live fights every Friday night is like my dream come true. If you mapped out my dream life there would be live fights everyday and I would be ring side watching them. I’m a huge fan of this sport and I can’t wait to be helping and coaching some of the future talent which will be on the show. I will get to enjoy some great fights and be involved with guys who are after the big prize – a UFC contract.”

Previous coaches have bedded down in the house. Not Faber. Oh no. “I definitely will not be living in the house with the guys – but I will be doing my training camp with them, we’ll be doing a lot of training together, I will do my best to mentor them, and I’m excited to get my hands on them and have my influence there,” he explained.

The Cruz–Faber Ultimate Fighter series has meant that the Californian will have been out of action for eight months when he finally meets his arch foe in the Octagon. Is that a difficult thing for Faber given how active he is naturally ?
“I’m OK with the lay-off. I feel like I fight all the time anyway because of the way I train and I’ve had long layoffs before – like when I broke my hands against Brown (Mike Brown) so I’m fine with that…”

When the series kicks off this week we will see two men forced to spend time together who genuinely don’t see eye-to-eye. “That’s pretty accurate, yep that’s the best way of putting it,” admits Faber. "It’s not going to be that much fun, my lifestyle lends itself to a hanging out with people I do like being around. So….”

So are we going to see plenty of back and forth ? He thinks about it….

“Look – I’ve not looked forward to a fight like the one between myself and Dominick Cruz for a very long time. What I’ve got to do by being around him is pretty much out of character for me.
“But all the TUF filming will be fine. I’m pretty good at dealing with changes and I’ll just make the best of the situation. I’m convinced I’ll be getting the better of him when it comes to the mental warfare and stuff, so it’s not going to be a big deal for me.”

Faber: ‘Hate’ is a strong word

So it’s not hate then ? “Hate is a strong word. I don’t hate anybody, so I certainly won’t say that I hate Dominick Cruz. But I don’t like him and it always makes it better when you are fighting somebody you don’t like. You look forward to punching them in the face and imposing your will and it really adds an edge to it.”

“But you have to be level headed; you have to always remember that this is a sport. Sometimes you’ll have to fight guys that you like and other times you’ll be paired with guys you don’t like. That’s just the way it plays out.”

“But pride is on the line and bragging rights and a championship belt then, of course, there is extra incentive to go out there. But I approach every fight like it’s a fight for survival. It’s just this fight has an extra element to it.

“If I am totally honest, I’d love to fight the guy every day. Maybe I’ll be able to convince him to get in the ring with me at some point during filming for TUF, during practice or a training session.”

“Every time I step into the cage I look at the guy across from me and I take something out of the fact I know they’re thinking they’re going to beat me up. I take that as a personal insult, that they even stepped in to face me. Even though I don’t say it, I’m thinking it. And it will be that same mentality except magnified when I get back in there with Dominick Cruz. We have unfinished business…and we’ll take care of it this summer.”

‘Laws of The Ring’ by Urijah Faber, out in May this year.

Work and lifestyle melt inextricably for Faber – a physical workaholic. “I always keep myself busy; I have some real estate by the beach and hang with my friends. Given the lifestyle I chose, I feel like I am always on vacation, that’s the great thing about it. I’m doing the best I can to keep it going. I train all day and then hang out with my buddies. My book is coming out this year (late May 2012) and it’s a motivational book ‘Laws of the Ring’. I also have a new website which I have created with Phil Davis which is really, really cool. It’s something we’ve been working on for the last year.”

“‘Laws of the Ring’ is basically a lot of my experiences through life – cool things I’ve learnt, some basic theories which are about living your life and following your passions.”

Faber talks in detail about his real estate portfolio. It’s a real passion of his. “I even look at properties everyday that I can’t afford, my dad is a building contractor and we built a few houses as projects – buying old houses and fixing them up. It’s just one of my passions.”

When I explain to Faber about my own portfolio he starts to laugh as he pictures me working with my builders as the labourer – “like Johnny Cash’s John Henry … ?” – he says. Not quite. Henry was an icon, and a role model in many different ways for his work ethic. But thanks for the sentiment, Urijah.

No crib for Faber; his place is a frat house (shades of the Ultimate Fighter house ?)

Strangely, however, Faber does not have a crib of his own. “No crib, no not at all. My place is more like a frat house, but I’m looking for a place I can do something cool with. I’m more of a guy that’s been squeaking by forever, I’ve been living below my means, living carefully.”

Faber admits he could live like Mickey Rourke in ‘The Wrestler’ in just a trailer and a life of training, eating, sh***ing and sleeping – and then going about his mission in life. “But I do want to have a nice home and I do have some cool properties right now but I’m just not really materialistic. I’m more into good food than material things.”

Since the merger of the UFC and WEC there have been a series of exciting fights in the UFC Octagon. It may be apocryphal, but does Faber think they get enough credit in the lower weight divisions? “I think they do. I know I’ve got a great following – and definitely don’t feel like we aren’t getting recognition. We have some of the best fighters pound for pound in the world – and I feel that this weight class will be the crown jewel of the UFC and I am looking forward to making that popular.

Faber’s rivalry with opposition fighter and coach Dominick Cruz is well documented, and the Ultimate fighter series will end with a trilogy fight between the pair. “I know there is a story line – and it is there as long as I can remember. I am lucky to have ‘an enemy’.” He laughs.

Trilogy fights, of course, have shaped legend in fight sports: Muhammad Ali may not have forged the legacy he did without Joe Frazier and in mixed martial arts today – the battles between names such as Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell, Ken Shamrock and Tito Ortiz, Wanderlei Silva and Kuzushi Sakuraba, not to mention the fighting Gracies – have become cemented in history. These fighters simply had great rivals and became even greater fighters themselves. Cruz-Faber will become one of them.

I venture to suggest that Anderson Silva doesn’t have great rivals out there to test him. Faber disagrees: “I think Chael Sonnen is a great rival for him and everyone wants to see that fight it just depends on whether Anderson will accept the fight – which is strange. I don’t know why he won’t maybe he has kind of a strange way on looking at things and doesn’t want to reward Chael by giving him a title shot – but I don’t know why he wouldn’t accept that."

Once long of locks, and sporting cornrows on fight night, Faber cut his mane off in its entirety late last year, as an empathy gesture to his sister Michaella who had brain surgery after a road traffic accident in November 2011. Thankfully she is on the “full blown road to recovery” according to Faber. We wish her well. “She had her last major surgery in January to put her skull back on. She is cognitively and physically perfect, so we are really lucky.”

So is Faber. He has it all. In droves. It promises to be a thrilling series.

THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER LIVE AIRS ON ESPN IN THE UK FROM 2AM ON SATURDAY MORNING, AND EVERY WEEK THEREAFTER.